Devices for storing household items such as gardening tools, children's toys, barbeque accessories and the like are well known. Permanent structures such as utility sheds or garages are often utilized for storage of such items. In recent years patios and decks have become a common addition to homes and apartments alike and while patios and decks provide outdoor recreational space for families they often consume a great deal of the lawn space available to the homeowner. Lawn space consumed by decks and patios is no longer available to the homeowner for storage sheds or permanent structures. Requiring the homeowner to find alternative storage space for items normally stored in the utility shed.
Devices for storing marine related articles at the water side are also well known. Permanent structures such as boat houses are often used for storage of boats and other equipment. It can be appreciated that on beaches and waterfront property, there are often many types of water toys and recreational equipment such as life-jackets, fishing gear and other articles that may be utilized in the water and which require storage. If there is no storage available at the water side, the equipment must be carried back and forth between storage space remote from the waterfront or placed in a boat which typically does not have adequate storage space and which does not provide adequate security.
Although permanent structures such as boathouses or utility sheds may provide adequate storage, such structures have several drawbacks. The permanent structures may be very costly to build and maintain. In addition to the cost, the permanent structure may require a permit to build and occupy space on the property or along the beach.
In addition to permanent storage sheds or boat houses, the prior art has proposed a number of different panel systems, or kits comprising blow molded or extruded panels and connector members for forming a wide variety of structures. Due to manufacturing limitations blow molded and extruded plastic components cannot be formed with the integral cross-bracing ribs or the intricate shapes and sharp corners required for integrated connectors that are possible with injection molding. Typically, such systems require extruded metal or plastic connector members having a specific cross-sectional geometry that facilitate an engagement between such members and one or more plastic panels having a complimentary edge configuration.
A particularly common structure for the connector members is the I-beam cross section. The I-beam defines free edge portions of the connector member which fit within appropriately dimensioned and located slots in the panel members. U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,352 teaches a storage box that is representative of the state of the art I-beam connector members. The I-beam sides of the connectors engage with the peripheral edge channels of a respective wall panel and thereby serve to join such panels together at right angles. Straight or in-line versions of the connector members are also included in the kits to join panels in a coplanar relationship to create walls of varying length.
The prior art has also suggested a number of smaller one piece plastic containers with removable lids for storage use. U.S. Pat. Nos. D308,486, D308,487, D309,106 teach such one piece containers. Typically such containers provide portability for storage but lack capacity to store larger items. Moreover, because these devices do not break down they are difficult to ship from the manufacturer to the consumer.
Such prior art systems, while working well, have not met all of the needs of manufacturers to provide a product that can be easily manufactured, packaged and shipped or the needs of consumers requiring structural integrity combined with modularity and aesthetic appearance.
Paramount among such needs is a panel system which creates deck storage box walls which resist panel separation, buckling, racking and weather infiltration. Security is a further consideration, the box formed by the panels must tie into the cover and bottom in such a way as to unify the entire enclosure.
Also, from a versatility standpoint, a cover should be present which can be easily interchanged after assembly of the side and bottom components and which provides additional seating as well as dependable security and pivoting access to the contents of the deck box.
There are also commercial considerations that must be satisfied by any viable deck box system or kit; considerations which are not entirely satisfied by state of the art products. The deck storage box must be formed of relatively few component parts that are inexpensive to manufacture by conventional techniques. The deck storage box must also be capable of being packaged and shipped in a knocked-down state. In addition, the system must be modular and facilitate the creation of a family of enclosures that vary in appearance and functionality but which share common, interchangeable components.
Finally, there are ergonomic needs that an enclosure system must satisfy in order to achieve acceptance by the end user. The system must be easily and quickly assembled using minimal hardware and requiring a minimal number of tools. Further, the system must not require excessive strength to assemble or include heavy component parts. Moreover, the system must assemble together in such a way so as not to detract from the internal storage volume of the resulting deck storage box or otherwise detract from the internal storage volume of the resulting deck storage box or otherwise negatively affect the utility of the deck storage box.